Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, just wrapped up a speaking tour of eastern Canada. But pro-Israel lobby organizations have tried every trick in their well-thumbed playbook to bar the internationally-renowned human rights jurist and scholar from doing the job she was assigned by the United Nations for a three-year term in 2022. Hurling the usual epithet “antisemite,” they tried to get the Canadian government to bar her from this country. They endeavoured to get her speaking venues cancelled. They urged government officials not to meet with her. They issued missives deriding her and fed disparaging stories to friendly media.

But these opponents failed to silence her message.

Charged by her employer with reporting to the UN and its affiliates on policy relating to the occupied territories, Albanese has been a rigorous critic of Israeli violations of international human rights law, especially against its Palestinian population. She has condemned Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In an early report, she called on UN member states to push Israel to end the occupation. After Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October 2023, Albanese demanded an immediate ceasefire, warning of the risk of ethnic cleansing. On March 26, 2024, Albanese provided further evidence in aid of the International Court of Justice’s accusation of a plausible genocide.

But the blitz by Israel and its supporters on Ms. Albanese is much more than an attack on a single person. It is nothing less than a wholesale offensive against the United Nations itself, at least as it relates to Israel.

Here is a list of elements of that assault on the UN:

• Almost by rote, the pro-Israel lobby has similarly maligned each and every one of Albanese’s distinguished predecessors, including most recently Canadian law professor and arbitrator, Michael Lynk (2016-2022).
• Israel has attacked decisions of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court that apply to it and Israeli citizens, not only in the instance of the current genocide but going back over the years.
• Israel has for years viciously attacked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance and human development to Palestinian refugees. It is the main provider of aid in Gaza. Recently, Israel formally cut its 1967 agreement with UNRWA, leading experts to predict mass starvation in Gaza and increasing misery in the West Bank.
• Despite the neutrality of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Israel, as it recently invaded southern Lebanon, actually attacked Irish peacekeepers in that body, in flagrant violation of international law. When the Israelis ordered the Irish soldiers to abandon UNIFIL’s observation post, the latter refused.
• For many years, Israel has ignored or defied decisions by the United Nations General Assembly and even its Security Council, to cease its belligerent activities against the Palestinians and end the occupation.

Ironically, the State of Israel owes its very existence to the United Nations. In 1947, the UN ended the British Mandate and proposed partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab, the other Jewish, with 57 percent of the territory. Israel proclaimed its independence and in the 1948 war expanded to 77 percent of the territory. Very soon afterward, the UN officially recognized Israel, making it a fait accompli.

Ironies abound. Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations since 2020, Bob Rae, has long touted the benefits of that body, saying:

The United Nations is a place where… conflicts play out in debates on resolutions, appointments to senior positions in the organization, the work and decisions of all the agencies, boards, councils, and commissions of the UN itself around the world. This, again, is what makes the principle of engagement so important. If Canada and others are disinterested in these critical decisions, we shall end up with organizations whose purpose and direction will not serve the interests of human dignity, civil liberties, and the rule of law…

We ignore these challenges at our peril.

And yet Bob Rae is also a loyal supporter of Israel. He needs to make up his mind on this issue.

Let’s call upon Bob Rae and the Canadian government to condemn the attempts by Israel and its supporters to incapacitate the United Nations. The mud slung against Albanese is part of a serious effort to pick apart and destroy the UN. Now with Donald Trump again elected as US president there will be nothing to stop his outrageous attacks on the UN and his aim to destroy, in his words, “shit-hole countries” including Gaza and the West Bank.

Larry Haiven is Professor Emeritus at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and a founding member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.